The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known and most-loved literary works in the world, and it may well be the best poem ever written. It is also a fine example of the power of figurative language: We read deep things into the vision of ourselves as sheep, led to green pastures and good water by a kind shepherd. It’s empowering to feel the confidence to go fearlessly into the valley of the shadow of death, and to feel the love and caring of a table prepared by the Lord and a cup so full it overflows.

What people don’t know, however, is that this language actually has precise internal meanings, and that when we see them there is an even deeper beauty in the poem. That’s because what it actually describes is the path to heaven, and the fierce desire the Lord has to lead us there.

The first step is to let the Lord be our shepherd – to accept His teaching and His leadership. The green pastures and the still waters represent the things He will teach us for the journey. Then He begins working inside is, setting our spiritual lives in order, so that we desire to do what’s good and to love one another. That’s represented by restoring our souls and leading us in the paths of righteousness.

But we will still face challenges. We still live external lives, out in the world, and we are subject to desires that arise in those externals, in our bodily lives. That’s the valley of the shadow of death. But the rod and staff represent truth from the Lord on both external and internal levels, ideas that can defend us against those desires.

And if we keep following, the Lord will prepare a table for us – a place inside us that he can fill with love (the anointing oil) and wisdom (the overflowing cup). Thus transformed, we can enter heaven, with love for others (“goodness”) and love from the Lord (“mercy”) and can love and be loved to eternity.

One of many beautiful things about this is the fact that it is the Lord who really does all the work. In the whole text, the only action taken by the sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Other than that, they follow the Lord, trust the Lord, accept the blessings of the Lord. And that is really true! In external states (in the valley) we might seem to be doing the work ourselves, but internally, spiritually, we simply need to give ourselves to the Lord and let Him bless us.

The underlying idea here is that the Lord created us so that He could love us, in loving us wants us to be happy, knows that our greatest happiness will come from being conjoined to Him in heaven, and Himself wants nothing more than to be conjoined to us. So everything He does, in every moment of every day for every person on the face of the planet, is centered on the goal of getting that person to heaven. He wants each and every one of us in heaven more than we are capable of imagining. We just need to cooperate.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 375 [34], 727 [2]; The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 273)

5179. On one occasion I experienced an anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach, which told me that spirits of that kind were present. I spoke to them, telling them that it would be better if they went away, because their sphere which created the feeling of anxiety was not compatible with the spheres of the spirits who were residing with me. At that time I talked to them about spheres, to the effect that many spiritual spheres surround a person but that people neither know nor wish to know about the existence of them, for the reason that they deny the existence of everything that is called spiritual, some denying the existence of everything that cannot be actually seen or touched. So I went on to say that certain spheres from the spiritual world surround a person, spheres that are in keeping with the life he leads, and that by means of these he exists in the company of spirits whose affection is similar to his own. Those spheres, I added, were also what gave rise to very many things, the existence of which is denied by the person who attributes everything to natural forces or else is ascribed by him to some rather more hidden natural cause such as chance. For experience leads some people to feel quite convinced that some hidden force is at work which they call chance, though they do not know the origin of that force. The fact that its origin exists in a spiritual sphere and that it is the last and lowest degree of Providence will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described elsewhere, when I shall draw on experience to bear witness to it.